Historic Lenox Avenue, at Mount Morris Park, is a real beauty but once you hit 125th Street, a lot of the charm seems to be missing. On the southwest side of the street, there's a large, gated, open lot that is bascially a city block with no building in sight. Across the street, on the northwest side, is what appears to be a large shopping mall, transplanted straight from the suburbs.
The top two photos show this corner of 125th Street facing west while standing on the north corner of Lenox Avenue. To the left is the original building in 1936 where the open lot is now. To the right, with the Howard sign, is the building plot on which the mall sits on today. The third photo is a print from 1891 that shows the same corner which must have been deemed a landmark of sorts in order to get all this attention for forty years.
Recognizable buildings in the top photo include the Hotel Theresa in the distance and the Koch department store building. In the illustration, the Koch building exists but the Theresa was not yet constructed on the sight. At the far end of the photo, it looks like the tall structure in the distance could possibly be the view of the International House, since 125th Street vista would not have been obstructed by the large, housing projects that are currently blocking the view today. Click on photos to enlarge.
We are not sure what happened after the depression years but both corners had empty lots on them by the latter half of the 20th century. The last photo shows the lot today on the south side of 125th street and looking north, one can see the mall that is in place today on that particular corner. Photos from NYPL except last photo by Ulysses.
Regarding the SW corner of 125th and Lenox, I remember the building that until recently occupied the now vacant lot. The buildings signature being it’s sharply 45 degree angled façade as the building turned the corner, clearly visible in the center image. This beautiful brick building added much character to this corner and was recently torn down so quickly. Another piece of 125th streets history so easily erased.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the top image, I love the street car on 125th, I would love to see street cars return to Manhattans cross streets, maybe expensive to introduce but worth their weight in gold as a tourist attraction.
ReplyDeleteWestsider, do you remember when the building was torn down?
ReplyDeleteMy estimate is this building was demolished in 2006, these photos http://www.urban75.org/photos/newyork/harlem-new-york.html show the building still standing in 2005. I remember there being a fire or partial collapse of a small section of this building located at the far western end on 125th. The fire department blocked off the street and performed a partial demolition of this small section. Very soon afterwards I was shocked to see the whole building razed, stretching along 125th and down Lenox Ave. This building like so many of its age was elegant, had fabulous brick details that would be hard to reproduce today and was a great compliment to this storied Harlem intersection.
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